In my work with young people, I often encounter a perceived conflict between faith and reason. Sometimes these young people think that what they're learning in science class and what they're learning about their faith are separate, competing explanations of reality—and they assume that, eventually, they're going to have to pick one to believe.
But our Catholic tradition gives us a very different way of looking at the question:
Faith and reason are not in competition.
In the opening lines of his encyclical Fides et Ratio (“Faith and Reason”), St. John Paul II famously described faith and reason as “two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth.” I love that image.
In nature, wings only operate as a pair; you don't see a one-winged dove. If faith and reason are a matched pair of wings, as John Paul II describes, you don’t want to have just one. With only one, you're not going to soar. You're just going to flap around. We need both.
God gave us our intellect. He created the natural world that science investigates, and he is also the source of what has been revealed to us through faith. So we don't have to be insecure about genuine scientific discovery.
The principle I want you to remember is very simple: Truth cannot contradict truth.
There Aren't Two Different Truths
This question isn't new.
In the time of St. Thomas Aquinas, thinkers were wrestling with philosophical ideas that seemed, at least initially, to contradict what Christianity taught. One proposed solution was essentially that there could be two truths: one discovered through reason and another accepted through faith.
Aquinas rejected that idea. He affirmed that there is one truth (see Summa Theologiae I.16.5–6).
That's tremendously important for us today. We don't need to put on our “science hat” and believe one thing, then put on our “faith hat” and believe something contradictory. Genuine discoveries of reason and the truths revealed by God ultimately have the same source.
God is the author of Scripture, and God is the author of nature. So if something is genuinely true, we don't have to be afraid of it.
That confidence has deep roots in Catholic tradition. Catholics have contributed enormously to scientific inquiry. Gregor Mendel, the father of genetics, was an Augustinian friar. Georges Lemaître, who proposed what became known as the Big Bang theory, was a Catholic priest.
A former colleague of mine, Fr. David Brown, is an astrophysicist who has worked with the Vatican Observatory. I remember students asking him whether his work as a scientist ever challenged his faith. His answer was basically the opposite: studying the universe drew him into deeper awe.
Complex equations, stars, galaxies, the vastness of the cosmos—none of it made God smaller. It revealed more of the majesty of what God had created.
Scripture Is Not a Science Textbook
This becomes especially important for those of us leading Bible studies because, sooner or later, somebody is going to ask about Genesis.
How do we reconcile Scripture with what science tells us about the universe?
One of the simplest examples I use is something I said this morning: I saw the sunrise.
Now, scientifically speaking, the sun didn't “rise.” The earth rotated, and from my perspective, the sun appeared above the horizon. But if I tell you, “I saw a beautiful sunrise this morning,” you don't interrupt me and say, Actually, Colin, that's scientifically inaccurate. You understand what I mean.
Scripture also speaks in ways appropriate to its purpose and literary genre. Genesis is telling us profound truths about creation: God is the Creator. Creation is good. The sun, moon, stars, earth, animals, and human beings are not gods; they are created by God. Human beings have a unique dignity in creation.
Genesis isn't trying to give us a modern scientific account of the physical processes involved. That doesn't make Scripture wrong, either. It means we have to ask what the sacred author is actually intending to communicate.
Begin Your Genesis Bible Study
The Bible contains many different kinds of writing. Poetry should be read as poetry. Historical narrative should be understood according to its genre. Wisdom literature works differently from a Gospel or an epistle. I'm working on the book of Job right now, and Job has its own particular literary character.
Understanding genre helps us avoid asking Scripture to answer questions it isn't trying to answer.
Catholics Don't Have to Be Afraid of Evolution
Evolution is probably one of the clearest places where people assume Catholicism and science must be at odds. But that's not the Church's position.
Pope Pius XII allowed for research and discussion concerning the development of the human body from pre-existing living matter while maintaining something essential about the human person: the spiritual soul is immediately created by God. Later, St. John Paul II acknowledged the growing scientific evidence surrounding evolutionary theory.
The important point isn't that the Church is trying to settle every scientific question. She isn't.
The point is that if science establishes something as true, our faith isn't threatened by it.
Science can investigate biological processes. It can study fossils, genetics, the development of life, and the history of the physical universe. Our faith tells us something science alone cannot: The human person is more than biological matter.
We aren't merely a collection of atoms. We are created in the image and likeness of God, and each human person possesses a spiritual soul created by God.
How exactly does every scientific detail fit together? There are questions we simply don't have definitive answers to yet.
And that's okay.
We don't need to force Scripture into a scientific theory, and we don't need to force scientific discoveries out of the picture to protect Scripture.
Avoid the Two Extremes
When we talk about faith and reason, I think there are two errors we need to avoid.
The first is fundamentalism: namely, reading Scripture in such a rigid way that we decide scientific evidence must conform to our particular interpretation. We can end up reading our own conclusions into Scripture (eisegesis), instead of allowing Scripture to speak according to its actual genre and purpose (exegesis).
But there's an opposite mistake too: rationalism or scientism.
That's when we decide in advance that anything miraculous or supernatural must have some purely material explanation.
Take the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. There have been attempts to explain the passage by saying that perhaps the boy sharing his food simply inspired everybody else to share theirs.
That's nice. But that's not what the passage is telling us happened.
If we approach Scripture assuming miracles can't happen, then we're not neutrally following reason. We're bringing our own skepticism to the text.
Catholicism asks us to avoid both extremes. Don't be afraid of science, and don't reduce all reality to what science can measure.
“Faith Is Not Fearful of Reason”
Pope Francis put it beautifully: “Faith is not fearful of reason.”
I think that's an important phrase because sometimes we can act as though our faith is fragile. We become nervous about the latest scientific discovery or worried that somebody is going to ask the one question that causes everything to fall apart.
Our faith isn't that insecure. We should be curious.
Some of us are science and math people. Some love history. Others love art or literature. Some of us want to know everything about everything.
All of those things can become ways of encountering the great and glorious creation God has made.
Go read Genesis, and then go outside at night and look at the stars.
Study biology and marvel at life.
Learn physics.
Read philosophy.
Ask difficult questions.
If what we're discovering is true, then ultimately it leads us toward the same God who is Truth.
This Matters for Evangelization
This isn't only an intellectual exercise. It affects the way we talk to people who have doubts.
If somebody tells you, “I'm more of a science person—I'm not really into religion,” you don't have to immediately launch into an argument.
Maybe the first thing to say is simply this: You don't actually have to pick.
And then listen.
When it comes to friends or family members who don't believe, I've found that they're often more affected by their experience of you than by the brilliance of your argument.
That means charity matters. Listening matters. Taking someone's objections seriously matters. Before answering, make sure you actually understand what they're saying.
Aquinas gives us a beautiful model for this. He presents objections seriously. He understands the opposing position. Then he responds to it.
That's a much better approach than treating every skeptical question as an attack that needs to be defeated.
Be patient. Listen. Ask questions. And don't be afraid to say, “I don't know. That's a good question. Let me look into it.”
Science Can Tell Us What We Can Do—Not Always What We Should Do
There's one other distinction worth making.
Scientific discovery and technological innovation aren't exactly the same thing. Science helps us discover how the created world works. Technology takes that knowledge and uses it to do something. And once we move into technology, another question becomes necessary.
It's no longer only, Can we do this?
We also have to ask, Should we do this?
Our ability to accomplish something technologically doesn't automatically make it morally good. That's where reason needs the light of faith and a proper understanding of the dignity of the human person.
Catholics aren't anti-science or anti-technology. But we should be discerning about how scientific knowledge is used.
Again, it's not either/or.
It's both/and.
Give God Your Mind and Your Heart
At the beginning of the webinar, we prayed about the disciples on the road to Emmaus whose hearts burned within them as Jesus opened the Scriptures. I think that's a beautiful image for what we're after.
God doesn't ask us to shut off our intellect in order to believe. He gave us our minds. He gave us our curiosity. He gave us the ability to investigate, reason, question, discover, and wonder.
And he also reveals himself to us.
Our faith and our reason, our intellect and our hearts, are meant to work together.
So if someone in your Bible study asks a difficult question about Genesis, evolution, the Big Bang, miracles, or some new scientific discovery, don't panic.
You don't have to have every answer. Start with confidence.
Truth cannot contradict truth.
Keep asking questions. Keep learning. Keep reading Scripture. Keep seeking understanding.
And allow both faith and reason to lead you into deeper wonder at the God who is the source of them both.
Want to learn more about balancing faith and reason? Watch Colin MacIver's full webinar from Ascension’s monthly Bible Study Leader Webinar Series!
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